Drawing Boundaries
by flippingthroughthepages
Summary: The numbers were counting down on the clock on top of the Cornucopia. I look around at the other tributes, my eyes lock on Cato. His infamous smirk on his face as he mouthed 'You're mine.' I rolled my eyes, looking at the set of knives close by. If I was going down, I was going down fighting.


Here I was in my own little secluded place in the woods , a place that I could call entirely my own. This was the place I come to when I was mad, upset, happy and even when I was bored. I come here and I sprawl myself out on the patch of grass. I don't come here to do anything else but to just listen. Listen to what was going around me.

If you were quit enough you could hear everything from the soft rustling of the tree branches as the wind sways them back and forth to the muted buzz of the bugs as they fly above my head towards the flowers. My favorite was the mocking jays sing melodious tunes back and forth to each other. I could escape anything happening in my life back in district 7.

I stayed in my spot for another ten minutes, letting the sun's rays create a blanket of warmth around my body.

That's when the blaring sound of the siren hit my ears, a warning that the Reaping was going to take place in an hour. Groaning as I pulled myself off the ground, I started making my way to my house.

Home. A four letter word that has a different meaning to each person. Mine takes the form of a small cabin along the forest's edge. It wasn't too small but it was just big enough for my small family.

As I walked towards the front door I could hear the commotion going on behind it. My mother was yet again patronizing my older brother about something probably irrelevant. She would always get so worked up on the day of the Reaping, though no one could blame her. Six years ago we had another family member, until she was reaped for the Hunger Games.

Andrea was eighteen at the time and I was eleven. Everyone had thought that she always had a good chance of coming back home. Spending most of her life working on the trees she became very skilled with an axe, earning herself a spot in the Career Pack. She survived into the final four, when the rest of them figured she wasn't useful any more they turned on her. She put up a good fight but in the end she wasn't able to beat the people who have been training all their life. They tortured her, drawing out her death and relishing in every moment of it. Could you even imagine having to watch your sister be torn apart to death at the age of eleven? The worst part was there was nothing I could do, but just watch. Hers screams haunted my nightmares every single night for years and years. The sister who taught me how to swim, how to fish, was now lying six feet under.

I was mad at everyone for doing this. Mad at the people who killed her. Mad at the Capitol for holding this every year just for their entertainment. Mad at myself to not being able to do anything but sit there and watch. To say that this made me a very bitter person was an understatement.

Though it seemed like the one took it the hardest was my mother, maybe it was the fact that I was a spitting image of Andrea.

Shaking the thought out of my head I pushed through the front door, which was creaking as I did so. Mother and Adrian who were just arguing about something stopped and turned towards me.

My mother straightened up and left Adrian's side to embrace me into a hug. She stepped back leaving only an arm's distance between us.

"There is a bath waiting for you and I laid out a dress on your bed." She said with a small smile. I only nodded in response making my way towards the bathroom.

If anyone were to hold a picture of Andrea when she was my age next to my face, you would think that we were the same person. The same golden brown and blonde hair bleached from the sun, the same button nose, the only difference there was is that she had the warmest brown eyes you would have ever seen. Mine resembled my mother's green but lost the shine in them a long time ago. That is what I saw in the mirror every day.

I made my way down into the living room where the rest of my family was waiting for me. There were just sitting there in complete silence, that's how it was every year on the Reaping day. Adrian, who was now nineteen stood up and walk with me towards Towns Square.

He went to the side lines where the people above eighteen stand and watch while I went the other way into the section where the seventeen year old girls stood and paced around. Two more years and I would be safe.

"Hello District Seven! Happy Hunger Games and may the odds be ever in your favor!" Dolores Gameson, this district's escort. Her skin was tinted a light lavender and her hair was a mess of bright neon pink curls that reached to her shoulders. Her outfit was much worse. A multi colored dressed that was designed in many different animal prints that clashed with each other and her heel were ridiculously high, they would change colors every couple of seconds. If I weren't in this situation I would have been laughing my head off at her appearance but since I am it would be terribly inappropriate to laugh.

Then there came the so called 'inspiring' short clip that we were forced to watch every year. Like this is something to be celebrated and be happy about. I mentally scoffed. The video ended with the voice of the monster that goes by the name of President Snow.

"Well wasn't that just lovely?" Dolores asked the crowd wiping a tear from her eye. We were silent. Unfazed by our lack of excitement she carried on.

"I think we should go with the boys first." She strutted down to the boys' glass bowl. She waved her hand dramatically around a bit before pulling out a white slip.

"Connor Richman."

A boy came out from the twelve year olds section. He was small, even for his age. He had crazy little curls that were a dark brown. He looked sick, like he was going throw up and I couldn't blame him. He slowly made his way up towards the stage, his whole body shaking.

"Any volunteers?"

No one came to take his spot. Tears were forming in his eyes as he figured that he was probably going to die.

After a long and dramatic pause Dolores moved on to the girls' glass bowl. Again she dramatically waved her hand around then picked up the first one that touched her hand. Slowly taking it out then removing the tape.

"Audrey Carson."

It didn't register that she called my name, only when the girls in front of me made a pathway for me and someone gave me a light push forward did I realized I was picked. I wiped the shock expression on my face as I made my way towards the stage.

A loud piercing screamed stopped me in my tracks. It was my mother.

"Please! Please, no! You can't do this! You can't take her away! Not her too! Please! No! No! No!" A peacekeeper came then to remove her from the area. I wanted to call out to her, run in her arms and tell her it was alright. But I couldn't move, I was glued to this spot.

"Come on, sweetheart." Dolores was waving me over. I finished the rest of the steps to meet Connor and Dolores at the microphone. We shook hands then we were ushered in to the rooms where we could say good bye.

I sat down on a plush couch. It was finally sinking in, I was going to die. I waited for a few minutes before the door opened revealing my distraught mother, Adrian not too far behind. She ran at full forced tackling me into a hug, mumbling incoherent things while I just sat there. She pulled back, her eyes red from crying.

"You have to come back to me! I can- can't lose you too!" She sobbed. I wanted to tell her I would come back but I knew I couldn't promise such a thing.

Adrian came up to my other side. He looked me straight in the eye.

"You're coming home." He said it with so much confidence that I almost believed that it was true. I shook my head; there was no way that I would be coming out, especially with the Careers.

"No, listen to me! You know how to throw a knife, you're good at that!" My father, distraught from losing a child, made himself a promise. If any other kid of his was sent into the Games they should be trained and ready. He wanted to a better chance for them to come home. He died last year though; a wild fire killed everything in its path, including him.

"I don't think I could take someone's life," In all honestly I wouldn't be able to. I couldn't because I know what happened to our family when someone killed Andrea. I couldn't do that to someone else, it would be too cruel.

"Listen, to you has to do whatever it takes to get home!" He bellowed at me! I winced at the volume, we hardly fought. He noticed my discomfort and he came and gave me a hug. "You have to come home, even if it means you have to kill someone." I couldn't do anything do anything but just nod my head. The rest of the time we spent together was just hugging in silence.

Our time was too short, it was cut off from when the peace keepers came barging into our room. One grabbed mother while the other grabbed Adrian and pulled them both out, slamming the door behind them. I could hear my mother's scream of protest slowly begin to fade into silence.

I waited and waited until Dolores came to collect me.

Connor walked next to me, his eyes red and puffy from crying. Even though I knew I shouldn't be creating bonds with someone who could be dead in two weeks' time, I didn't care. He was only a little kid. I grabbed his hand and gave it a light squeeze. When he looked at me with a surprised expression on his face, I could only give a small smile.

Dolores led us to a car that was going to take us to the train. I had never been in a car before. And by the looks of it neither has Connor, his face held a look of awe and amazement. We all slid in the back seat, the leather feeling cool on my skin. I looked at the window, trying to take in as much as possible. The next time I come back home I could be in a body bag.

I tried shaking those thought out of my mind, I had to come home for my mother and Adrian.

The car trip was over sooner than I would have like it. When I got out of the car the first thing that I noticed was the silver train that was going to take us to the Capitol.

Stunned, I have never seen something like this before. I slowly followed Dolores on the huge train. The door automatically slid open as I walked near it.

Slam! The door was sealed shut. There was no going back now.

**A/N: This is my first fanfic so I would really appreciate some people to review so I could get some input back. Jeez I know I'm really late on making a Cato/Oc but oh well. The next chapter Audrey and Connor are going to be meeting their mentors. It only takes a few minutes to type so please review! Thanks! :) **


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